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Landfill-free Boulder County could mean greater ash borer risk nearby

The signature of the emerald ash borer is found at the Boulder woodlot in 2013. (Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post file)

Officials in communities directly outside Boulder County aren't keen on a decision made late last year by the Colorado Department of Agriculture to place areas free of the destructive emerald ash borer inside the state's quarantine area.

Dave High, Golden's forester, said he was "dismayed" when he learned that the Republic Landfill, just a few miles north of the city on Colorado 93 in Jefferson County, was identified as a collection point for infested ash wood.

He feels if wood is brought to the landfill, it will increase the likelihood that the pest will show up in Golden, which has 15,000 ash trees at risk.

Others, like Arvada Mayor Marc Williams, said there's a rich "irony" to the situation, given the fact that the ash borer quarantine zone was drawn the way it was because Boulder County, which prides itself on its green credentials, has no landfill of its own to handle infested wood.

Arvada, with its 97,000 ash trees, is just a couple of miles away from the Republic Landfill.

Jefferson County Commissioner Casey Tighe said he understands that the state had to find a place to take beetle-infested wood but said some Jefferson County residents will undoubtedly cry foul over the situation.

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"We're having to participate in fixing Boulder's problem — that's not lost on us," Tighe said. "It's frustrating."

Laura Pottorff, the state's quarantine manager, sympathizes with those who find themselves in the potential path of an insect that has decimated more than 50 million ash trees in 22 states. But she said federal rules concerning pest management and quarantine zones forced the Department of Agriculture's hand.

"Unfortunately, because those communities are closer to Boulder and they have landfills, they are subject to higher risk than other places," Pottorff said. "The people in the quarantine area must be able to dispose of this wood with the least amount of risk to the rest of the state."

She said infested wood must be buried on a daily basis at the landfills, which include the Front Range and Denver Regional landfills in Erie. She hopes that is enough to stop the spread of the insect into nearby communities — at least for now.

"We are banking on the fact that this material will be covered every day," Pottorff said. "But there is always some risk."

Spread inevitable

FILE -- Tony Koski, Horticulture and Landscape Agent with the CSU Extension office, holds a large Ash tree branch at the wood lot for the City of Boulder in Boulder, Co on October 31, 2013. (Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post file photo)

So far, Boulder hasn't sent any of its public ash tree refuse to the landfills in neighboring counties, said Boulder forester Kathleen Alexander.

"Right now, our woodlot is able to handle the ash wood that comes in," she said. "But when it ramps up, we may have to bring some to the landfills."

A representative of the Republic Landfill in Jeffco didn't respond to an inquiry about whether the facility has received any infested wood to date. But she did confirm that such wood would be buried daily under six inches of ground cover.

Highly regarded entomologist Whitney Cranshaw, a professor at Colorado State University, recently told The Denver Post the borer is most likely to expand its range through natural migration, aided by wind, or via someone carelessly or unwittingly bringing infested wood into an uninfested area.

He said the emerald ash borer, the larvae of which create feeding galleries under the bark that destroy the tree's vascular system, "is unprecedented in its potential to damage our urban forests."

Broomfield forester Tom Wells acknowledges that there isn't much the state can do long term to stop the spread of the borer but he said the decision to deliberately bring the pest that much closer to his city "gave him pause."

Where the insect is now known to be about 15 miles away from Broomfield, it could potentially end up just a few miles away at either of the two Erie landfills.

"We're kind of checking and watching," he said.

"Responsible plan"

But like other officials in the area, Wells said while the situation isn't ideal, he trusts that the state will handle infested ash wood, including logs, wood chips, mulch, stumps, roots, branches and firewood, with diligence and care.

Arvada Deputy City Manager Bill Ray was even more forgiving, saying that the state approach looked to him like a "responsible plan for managing that exposure."

He said the beetle already may have been spread beyond Boulder by mistake, sent along with the debris collected in the wake of last September's floods before the quarantine was imposed.

"Given the realities of the situation on the ground, there has to be a disposal point," Ray said. "We have to recognize that sooner or later, it's going to spread far beyond the city limits of Boulder."

John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abuvthefold

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